Sergeant General

Field sergeant general was a military rank in the newly emerging officer class of generals in the armies of the German and Nordic countries in the 17th and 18th centuries .

meaning

The designation field sergeant arose from the original task of these officers to inspect the field guards and to monitor the formation of the brigades and regiments in the field as well as the marching order .

Position in the hierarchy

The generalfeldwachtmeister (GfWM) was superior of all brigadiers and colonels of his branch of service . He was subordinate to the Lieutenant General (in Austria the Lieutenant Field Marshal ).

Equivalents in other armies

The rank has sometimes been described as equivalent to the Maréchal de camp in the army of the Ancien Régime in France. He had a least linguistically precise equivalent in Sargento general in the Spanish infantry of the Habsburg era . This was the traditional assistant of the Maestre de campo general ("Generalfeldmeister", i.e. foot troop general ) and, like the general field sergeant, was subordinated to the general field master lieutenant ( Teniente de maestre de campo general ), who represented the general field master .

Field sergeant as troop officers

At the regiment level, the field sergeant or field sergeant, colonel sergeant or chief sergeant had the corresponding tasks. This designation of the rank, which was traditionally called Sargento mayor in the Spanish army and was also called similarly in the French and British armies ( Sergent major or Sergeant major ), was replaced around 1700 by the term major , which was taken over from Spanish . However, the salutation “Herr Oberstwachtmeister” for a major was still common in some regiments of the Prussian Guard well into the 18th century.

Modern equivalent

In the 18th century the term general field sergeant was replaced by the expression major general .

Individual evidence

^ So with Johann Christoph Adelung : General-Feldwachtmeister, der. In: ders .: Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect, Volume 2. Leipzig 1796, pp. 561–562.
↑ Fernando González de León: The road to Rocroi: class, culture and command in the Spanish Army of Flanders, 1567-1659. Brill, Leiden 2009, ISBN 9-0041-7082-0 , p. 20 in the Google book search.
↑ Harry Horstmann: The soldier in language and tradition. BoD , Norderstedt 2010, page 31 f., ISBN 978-3-8391-8603-9 (Chapter 39: "What does 'Major' mean?").

[1] So with Johann Christoph Adelung : General-Feldwachtmeister, der. In: ders .: Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect, Volume 2. Leipzig 1796, pp. 561–562.

[2] Fernando González de León: The road to Rocroi: class, culture and command in the Spanish Army of Flanders, 1567-1659. Brill, Leiden 2009, ISBN 9-0041-7082-0 , p. 20 in the Google book search.

[3] Harry Horstmann: The soldier in language and tradition. BoD , Norderstedt 2010, page 31 f., ISBN 978-3-8391-8603-9 (Chapter 39: "What does 'Major' mean?").